As a Writ of Fire burns on and on, so too do our journeys through Middle-earth.  In this week’s post, we’ll talk about Rune-keeper skills from levels 31 – 50, legendary trait deeds at level 39, and the level 45 class quests that push you to venture into the strongholds of Angmar.  For those of you interested in skirmishes (give ‘em a try!), I recommend Almazar’s recent posts here.  He has skirmishes covered pretty well, so I won’t add any echoes to the room.

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Epics and Essays: your skills at levels 31-50

Despite covering nearly 20 levels, the skills you earn between level 31 and 50 are fairly limited and fit pretty neatly into three different categories: area-of-effect (AoE) attacks, preparation skills, and panic buttons. You also get two more Wrath of Flame skills to help round out your Fire DPS rotation, if you’ve found them to be your favorite skills to use when scolding naughty orcs.

Rune-keepers learn the following skills between levels 31 and 50:


 Skill Level Attunes Requires
Frozen Epilogue (32) 1 Battle 9 Battle
Weapon of Storm (34) 1 Steady -
Essence of Flame (36) 1 Battle 6 Battle
Epic for the Ages (38) 1 Healing 6 Healing
Smouldering Wrath (40) 1 Battle 9 Battle
Flurry of Words (40) 1 Battle 3 Battle
The Blade will not Wound (40) 1 Steady -
Essay of Exaltation (42) 1 Healing 9 Healing
The Fang will not Poison (44) 1 Steady -
Do Not Fall to Storm (46) 1 Steady -
Our Fates Entwined (48) 1 Healing 9 Healing
Do Not Fall This Day (50) 4 Steady -

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Frozen Epilogue and Flurry of Words are two additions to your Chill of Winter area-of-effect damage (AoE) skills.  In addition to its damage, Frozen Epilogue instantly applies a penalty to your enemies’ Attack Duration, Skill Inductions, Power Costs, and Incoming Healing.  These penalties are the equivalent of Tier 3 Writ of Frost and Essence of Winter debuffs, so it’s a quick way to heavily penalize a group of up to 5 foes.  Flurry of Words adds yet another layer of damage and debuffs, dealing damage over time and reducing foes’ chances to evade.  Your Chill of Winter AoE skills are great ways to deal with large groups of foes, but they cost a substantial amount of power to use, so don’t use them frivolously if power is a concern.

Nasty winter elements.

Between levels 40 – 50, you learn a new set of skills to fit into your combat preparations.  The Blade will not Wound and The Fang will not Poison do not cure existing Wounds or Poisons, but will increase your fellows’ resistance to them and instantly cure the first Wound or Poison debuff they receive.  Similarly, Do Not Fall to (Storm/Flame/Winter) completely negates the next Lightning/Fire/Frost damage your fellows receive.  If you know a particularly nasty elemental attack is coming, you can switch to the appropriately attuned rune-stone and cast Do Not Fall to X, saving yourself or your healer a lot of work!

Despite its name, Do Not Fall This Day doesn’t actually prevent an ally from falling in battle, but it does give them the option to revive immediately after being defeated in combat, effectively acting as an in-combat resurrection spell.  A word of warning: there is a 1-2 second delay before the spell actually comes into effect, so don’t wait until the very last second to use it!  If a fellow looks to be in dire trouble, cast Do Not Fall This Day on them.  Better to waste the spell than have been too late to use it at all.

Finally, you gain two powerful panic buttons at level 42 and 48 for when you’re healing and getting overwhelmed.  Essay of Exaltation is an incredibly powerful healing skill, shielding your entire fellowship from 40% of all incoming damage and putting a powerful heal-over-time on everyone for 10 seconds.  If you’re healing and the tide is turning against your fellowship, use Essay of Exaltation to bring the situation back under control.

Our Fates Entwined is a unique skill that transfers 10% of the fellowship’s damage to you and makes your inductions uninterruptable.  It’s a fairly situational skill, but if mobs are making your inductions impossible to cast, link with your fellowship and you won’t suffer any more push-back, allowing you to use your skills without interruption.  Just remember that you’ll also be taking 10% of the fellowship’s damage, so be sure to cast a few HoTs (heal over time abilities) on yourself when using this skill.

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Books of Legend: your level 39+ legendary trait deeds

At level 39, you’ll be able to purchase three books from your class trainer: Golu o Maeth, Thunder and Flame, and Whispers in the Dark.  I highly recommend buying all three of these books as soon as you hit 39, because they unlock the deeds that give you your first legendary traits: Martial Training, You Shall Fall to our Wrath, and Steady Hands, respectively.  All three of these traits are very useful, and you’ll want to earn them as soon as possible.  To complete the deeds, you’ll be searching the bodies of evil men, evil dwarves, orcs, and goblins in Angmar, Eregion, Forochel, and the Misty Mountains for the missing pages of these books.  Once you have found all the pages to one of your books, visit a bard to equip the corresponding legendary trait.

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Meaning upon Meaning: your level 45 class quests

Once you achieve level 45, you’ll be sent to Gondamon to begin the first pair of quests in a quest chain that ultimately gives you the That Which Does Not Kill Us legendary trait, as well as valuable jewelery and a rare rune-stone.  You’ll be collecting quite a few special items from creatures all across Middle-earth, and ultimately venturing into Carn Dûm and Urugarth in Angmar to retrieve the final components to your special reward items.  These items are also available for Skirmish Marks, and you may find them for sale on the Auction House as well, in case you have trouble tackling Angmar’s dread fortresses.  Thankfully, our quest-giver Dardúr doesn’t much care how you got the items, just that you collect and bring them all to him.

Lotro-Wiki.com has a complete description of this quest chain, so if you want to know exactly what items you need to get and where to get them, check it out. You’ll likely end up replacing item rewards by the time you complete these quests, but the legendary trait That Which Does Not Kill Us makes completing these class quests well worth it.  I also highly recommend attempting the Angmar dungeons at-level.  They’re a thrilling ride when you’re still low-level enough to be challenged by them.

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Your first thirty levels gave you all the building blocks to being a successful Rune-keeper and the next twenty help you perfect your craft.  From here on out, it’s all about learning to anticipate and counter your foes’ abilities with your own.  The newest elements of rune-keeping in these later levels is getting used to using your “The Blade/Fang will not Wound/Poison” and “Do Not Fall…” skills.  If you can learn to predict when to take a break from your normal DPS or healing skills and use those prevention abilities, you’ll be leagues ahead of the pack.  The Rune-keeper class demands a bit of educated guesswork when playing, but I’ve always found it keeps me on my toes and happy when I get it right.

Next week, we’ll be wrapping up our leveling guide.  What comes after that?  Good question!  Traits are definitely going to get some attention, as are Legendary Items and Legacies.  Beyond that, the story has yet to be written.  Anything specific you’d like to see discussed?  Let me know!  Leave a comment or send me an email at omsi.lotro@gmail.com.

Until then, may your tales be longer and more epic than Durin’s beard!

—Omsi

PS: Special thanks to Duniath of the Lonely Mountain Band for braving Caradhras’ fury for a few pretty pictures and proving that you don’t have to have a beard to be a Rune-keeper (it just helps! ;D ).